UK-based digital healthcare provider and online pharmacy Numan is calling out the rise of “cardboard cut-out care” and online hucksters that undermine patient trust in digital healthcare on the back of a new wave of weight loss medication providers flooding the market.
In a new campaign, which is led by two 30-second films, the company argues that effective weight loss treatment needs more than pretty promises and pictures of smiling people in white coats; it needs real clinical care and real behavioural support.
The films, devised in-house, will roll out across TV, VOD, YouTube, paid social, and CRM, plus a dedicated campaign hub on the Numan website.
“Cardboard Doctor” is fronted by exactly that, standing in for sellers that look like healthcare but offer no regulated, clinical support. The message is simple: weight loss treatment takes more than a prescription.
Meanwhile, “New You” stars fictional conspirituality charlatan Neil Steel. The creative pokes fun at the industry’s obsession with dramatic transformations and the notion that losing weight means becoming an entirely different person. Instead, it champions a more realistic approach: helping people feel more like themselves, not less.
The campaign follows Numan’s recent entry into the oral GLP-1 category and the first chapter of a wider brand repositioning, centred on the belief that patients achieve better outcomes when medication is backed by ongoing clinical care, behavioural support and expert guidance.
The activity launches against a backdrop of growing concerns around trust and transparency in the weight-loss market, with recent reports highlighting the growing prevalence of fake and misleading AI-generated “doctor” accounts online, blurring the lines between genuine clinical expertise and health misinformation.
Research from Numan has found that 43% of prospective patients worry about side effects, 42% fear regaining weight, and 23% have an aversion to injections. At the same time, 38% would consider purchasing from unregulated sellers, highlighting the need for trusted healthcare providers in a rapidly evolving market.
Numan brand director Remy Le Fèvre said: “Most of the category has worked out how to sell you a prescription. Our view at Numan is that it’s everything around that prescription that makes the difference. The hard part is getting people to actually trust it and stick to it.
“That’s what this campaign goes after. It answers the sceptical noise with something real. A charlatan promising a whole new life, when all you want is to take control of your health. A cardboard doctor who can’t answer a single question, because there was never a doctor there at all.
“The medication is a real advance toward metabolic health, and more accessible than ever. What makes it work best is the care around it: real doctors, clinicians and coaches supporting people for the long term. That difference is the whole point. That’s Numan.”
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